Walk to Vihren

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A glorious day today and we set off early by mini bus to walk from the Vihren Hut upwards toward the Vihren Peak. It was much harder going uphill than we had expected; very rocky requiring big steps up and much use of poles and hands. The going was much easier in places but there was still a lot of snow.

Wolfgang led us confidently and very safely across one snow field but would not allow us on any that were steep. We stopped at the saddle for lunch and a sensible decision was made not to tackle the last steep slope to the actual peak.

This photo is from the saddle and you can see mountains in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece from here. It was a wonderful place to be. You may see a flash of red in the bottom right hand corner - the sign of a national trail.

The mountain sides were carpeted with crocuses. We did not find the alpine snowbell, Soldanella pusilla, which was disappointing.

Tonight I was too tired to blip, hence this is a back blip. It was a day to remember for a long time.